North Africa has gained its first commercial LTE network courtesy of Algerian state-owned operator, Alg’rie T’l’com.
Nokia, Ericsson and ZTE are all supplying equipment for the project, which will intiaily focus on fixed access in a country with wireline broadband penetration, but is being carefully future-proofed for future, fully mobile applications, including VoLTE.
Nokia is supplying the bullk of the access network, with its flagship Flexi Multiradio 10 SIngleRAN base stations. It is also providing a security solution based on its NetAct product and its partnership with Juniper ‘ an alliance some still think will lead to full merger in future.
For its part, Ericsson is the sole supplier of the evolved packet core (its SSR 8000 platform and MME); IMS ‘ including VoLTE readiness and IP networking; and the OSS/BSS back office systems including charging and billing. Ericsson will also offer some RAN equipment.
In addition, ZTE is providing infrastructure in 14 provinces, including the capital city Algiers.
This laundry list shows the telco not just deploying LTE in hotspot formations for data services, but undergoing a radical reworking of its whole network, with an eye on future mobile services, and on consumers which do much of their internet activity on handsets.
In the first phase though, in common with many 4G deployments in emerging economies, the network will mainly target high value business customers and then residential broadband services, with full mobile coverage likely to rely. Businesses get a 4G router and are charged rates from 3,500 dinars (€32) a month for 5Gbyte of data up to DA6,500 for 10Gbytes.
‘We had a huge demand for ultra-fast broadband network and greater coverage as the number of broadband subscribers was rapidly growing across the length and breadth of Algeria,’ said Azouaou Mehmel, CEO of the telco.
According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), Alg’rie T’l’com became the world’s 288th live LTE operator when its service launched on May 1. Its first wave of roll-out will involve 200 sites in 48 provinces and the number of sites will increase to about 2,000 by the end of next year.
At nearly 2.4m square kilometers, Algeria is the largest country in Africa and there are many challenges with bringing universal broadband to its diverse terrains.